Sulpicia

Many women, we know, wrote poetry in ancient Rome. The works of only one have survived. This poem by Sulpicia, the niece of the distinguished statesman and patron of letters Valerius Messalla Corvinus, allow us to hear an aristocratic female voice from the late first century B.C. and the Augustan milieu of Horace and Virgil. Sulpicia’s work has been handed down as part of the Corpus Tibullianum, a collection of poems by Tibullus and other poets affiliated with Messalla.

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At last. It’s come. Love,

the kind that veiling will give me reputation more

than showing my soul naked to someone.

I prayed to Aphrodite in Latin, in poems;

she brought him, snuggled him into my bosom.

Venus has kept her promises:

let her tell the story of my happiness, in case some

woman will be said not to have had her share.

I would not want to trust anything to tablets, signed

and sealed, so no one reads me before my love–

but indiscretion has its charms;

it’s boring to fit one’s face to reputation.

May I be said to be a worthy lover for a worthy love.

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Notes:

Aphrodite in Latin: in her Latin, Sulpicia juxtaposes Cytherea, a Greek epithet for Aphrodite, with the Camenae, the Italian and Roman goddesses of song and poetry, counterparts of the Muses.

Venus: the Roman goddess of erotic love. Her Greek counterpart is Aphrodite.

Tablets: wooden tablets coated in wax were the usual material for writing letters or drafts.

Translation copyright Lee Pearcy; all rights reserved.

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